Apple

[Pre]

I think at the current price point, it will end up being a disappointing device for most users.

It's too big to really be portable.  Sure, it's fine for a plane ride or the train, but how many
people do those things on a regular basis.  LCD screens are pretty much useless outside,
you're not going to use it at the beach or whatever.  So it's not an ipod touch/iphone
replacement.

You're not going to do any "real work" on one.  No physical keyboard, no mulitasking, fairly
underpowered, etc.

I also think people that buy it to be a netbook replacement / light usage pc will be
disappointed.  Even if you're just an email, write a few documents, youtube, etc
user.  Since it's built on the ipod/iphone OS without multi-threading even basic
work flows will be obnoxious.  Particularly once you realize how annoying the lack of
a DVD drive and most importantly a usb connector is.  And try and type a multi-page
document on a large on-screen keyboard.

If it had a front facing webcam at least I could see people buying it for grandma to
surf the web and skype (or equivalent).

As far as kindle goes, it has e-ink and free 3G (although not full web browsing ability).
It's catering to a different market.  The people I know who own one love the e-ink
and free 3G.  I don't get it either, but I don't see any of them considering the iPad
a competitor.

At the current price point, you could just buy an ipod touch with the same amount of
flash and then a nice netbook or notebook.  In 6-12 months with more features at a
new price point it might be a compelling product, but right now I expect a lot of people
to regret buying them, particularly that 2 year $600 cell contract.

[BH]

I think at the current price point, it will end up being a disappointing device for most users.

It's too big to really be portable.  Sure, it's fine for a plane ride or the train, but how many
people do those things on a regular basis.  LCD screens are pretty much useless outside,
you're not going to use it at the beach or whatever.  So it's not an ipod touch/iphone
replacement.

You're not going to do any "real work" on one.  No physical keyboard, no mulitasking, fairly
underpowered, etc.

I also think people that buy it to be a netbook replacement / light usage pc will be
disappointed.  Even if you're just an email, write a few documents, youtube, etc
user.  Since it's built on the ipod/iphone OS without multi-threading even basic
work flows will be obnoxious.  Particularly once you realize how annoying the lack of
a DVD drive and most importantly a usb connector is.  And try and type a multi-page
document on a large on-screen keyboard.

If it had a front facing webcam at least I could see people buying it for grandma to
surf the web and skype (or equivalent).

As far as kindle goes, it has e-ink and free 3G (although not full web browsing ability).
It's catering to a different market.  The people I know who own one love the e-ink
and free 3G.  I don't get it either, but I don't see any of them considering the iPad
a competitor.

At the current price point, you could just buy an ipod touch with the same amount of
flash and then a nice netbook or notebook.  In 6-12 months with more features at a
new price point it might be a compelling product, but right now I expect a lot of people
to regret buying them, particularly that 2 year $600 cell contract.

Good right up. Gonna have to wait and see how this plays out. Apple has done a pretty good job redefining what people think they need, so I won't be surprised if this is a success. And regarding the last part, there is no contract for using ATT, it's month to month.

[Weebs]

I think at the current price point, it will end up being a disappointing device for most users.

It's too big to really be portable.  Sure, it's fine for a plane ride or the train, but how many
people do those things on a regular basis.  LCD screens are pretty much useless outside,
you're not going to use it at the beach or whatever.  So it's not an ipod touch/iphone
replacement.

You're not going to do any "real work" on one.  No physical keyboard, no mulitasking, fairly
underpowered, etc.

I also think people that buy it to be a netbook replacement / light usage pc will be
disappointed.  Even if you're just an email, write a few documents, youtube, etc
user.  Since it's built on the ipod/iphone OS without multi-threading even basic
work flows will be obnoxious.  Particularly once you realize how annoying the lack of
a DVD drive and most importantly a usb connector is.  And try and type a multi-page
document on a large on-screen keyboard.

If it had a front facing webcam at least I could see people buying it for grandma to
surf the web and skype (or equivalent).

As far as kindle goes, it has e-ink and free 3G (although not full web browsing ability).
It's catering to a different market.  The people I know who own one love the e-ink
and free 3G.  I don't get it either, but I don't see any of them considering the iPad
a competitor.

At the current price point, you could just buy an ipod touch with the same amount of
flash and then a nice netbook or notebook.  In 6-12 months with more features at a
new price point it might be a compelling product, but right now I expect a lot of people
to regret buying them, particularly that 2 year $600 cell contract.

Agreed.  It would be cool if it was running the Chrome OS that Google will be putting on their machines in the future, where most storage, applications, etc. are done through the "cloud" and the amount of space on the machine isn't all that important.  But when you're looking at $500 for the cheapest model, and only getting 16 GB of storage (which has to be used for music, books, videos, apps, etc.), the only benefit it has over a Touch is that the screen is larger.  Third party developers on the jailbroken/unlocked iPhone/Touch OS have solved the multi-tasking issue, but it's obviously designed as a workaround for Apple's shortcomings and isn't as intuitive as it could be if the OS actually had it built in.  I haven't ever used the Kindle, and don't know about the market for that thing, but it seems like if someone was just looking at the iPad for the eBook feature, the cheapest model is at least a better way to go than the Kindle DX.

[powen01]

Weebs just hit on the usefulness of this device:  Jailbroken it could be a lot of fun. 

[Saul Goodman]

I think at the current price point, it will end up being a disappointing device for most users...

I don't think there's anything wrong with the price point.  It'll go through the typical tumble down the Apple tree just like the iPods went from $399 to $299 to $199 to $149 and so on.

It has the same LCD screen technology as the iPhone and iPod touch, which are both actually great to use in sunlight, so no problem there.  It's OLED that's shitty in the sun.  Thank God Apple didn't kowtow to the gadget whiners demanding OLED.  I've used my touch at the beach plenty of times, and the iPad has essentially the same screen except larger.

I agree with you on multitasking, but not physical keyboard (you can get a keyboard dock or use a BT keyboard if you must have the tactile feedback) or underpowered (the 1GHz chip is actually pretty sweet.  iPhone is somewhere around 600MHz.  All the hands-on reviews I've read said they were impressed with performance).

The camera connection kit actually comes with a USB adapter, but how many devices will it support is the question.  Fortunately that's a software thing, so I'm pretty optimistic we'll get the drivers.  And I'd expect they'll come up with some kind of beefed-up keyboard dock or perhaps iMac shell that will add an optical drive.

(cont)

[Saul Goodman]

(cont)

Your general take, and you can correct me if I'm mischaracterizing, is that the device isn't ready for what it could be, and I agree completely with that.  I think it needs the following to be a fantastic product:

1. Multitasking - There really is no excuse for crippling the hardware like this and limiting it to run one app at a time.  If Steve Jobs wants this to compete with netbooks, this needs to be the first thing to go.  Personally I'd rather have a touch-optimized version of Mac OS X that would let me run almost every app I have on my Mac, than the iPhone OS designed for a screen half the size that's on there now.  This is a major misstep if it isn't fixed.  Actually, I think Apple knows this, but the tech isn't ready yet.  Let's hope they're working on it.  You could have a special desktop to run widgets all the time like Twitter, Facebook, RSS readers, weather, whatever people want.  Basically it would be Dashboard except on all the time.  Like a HUD.

2. Cameras, two of them - One on the front for video chat, one on the back for still photos, home movies, YouTube, etc.  The fact that the iPod nano has a video camera and the iPad doesn't is, frankly, a joke.  I think they wanted one in there but had to pull it at the last minute for tech reasons.  That happened with the latest iPod touch too.  Probably waiting for quality to catch up with size, but come on.  I've never seen a better video chat experience than what you can get with iChat ... it's better than Skype, especially AIM, and REALLY especially MSN.  Use that know-how to make the iPad a do-it-all communications device.  A mobile projector for enterprise and education is also a must.

3. Peripheral support - This thing needs to be able to sync iPods and iPhones, talk to cameras, printers, flash drives, hard drives, everything.  There should be a USB adapter and a FireWire adapter.  As someone with a journalism background, I would kill to be able to shoot video in the field, import it to an iPad, edit with Final Cut Touch, and upload to my station's ftp using the 3G network, all from the van.  You can do this with laptops, yeah, but there's added overhead and hassle.  This would just be a streamlined experience, intuitive, very slick.  If anyone can do it, it's Apple.  If this happens, it's a very big deal for bloggers, video journalists, etc.

4. Docks (intangible and tangible) - there should be a wide array of dock support.  I want to be able to use this as a music player or radio in my car.  I want to be able to control all my audio and video equipment at home with it.  I want it to be my Home Command Center, controlling the thermostat, motorized blinds, garage door, etc.  If that can be done with a wireless dock, some sort of proximity authentication, all the better.

5. Content - I think eBooks will be very popular on this once it takes off.  Why buy a Kindle when a couple hundred more can get you one of these?  And we all know Apple will lower the price, probably on the next revision.  I want to be able to stream live TV on this thing.  I think Apple is working on it, but it's been tough getting content providers on board.  Web-enhanced programming would be awesome.  There's all kinds of opportunities to have stat and box score widgets side-by-side with a game broadcast, you could have overlays on the screen to monitor other channels or scores, there could be a sidebar next to TV episodes with the name and artist of the song playing on that episode, with a handy iTunes "Buy" link right there that won't interrupt your program.

I'm probably missing some things, but those are the big ones I'm hoping they address for V 2.0.

And Weebs, thanks for the laugh on how cool it would be if Apple put Chrome OS on it.

[Saul Goodman]

TPD, to add screw Flash.  There's some complaints that there's no support for it on the iPad, but the truth is Apple has a fiery hatred for all things Adobe Flash. It will never ever be on the iPhone or iPad.  Never.  For anyone who doesn't regularly use a Mac, Flash is written extremely poorly for the Mac platform compared to what you're used to on PC.  And Adobe really doesn't give a shit to fix it.  Easily the most common cause of browser crashes on OS X is thanks to evil Flash.  Microsoft's Silverlight is a lame ripoff but at least it doesn't crash constantly.  But still.  I'm hitching my wagon to the < video > tag in HTML5.  YouTube and Vimeo are already on board, hopefully more follow.

And if you have a Mac, try Clicktoflash.  It's awesome.

[Pre]

And Adobe really doesn't give a shit to fix it.

While Adobe writes shitty software, that's not true.  Since apple is strong arming them off the
iPhone/Touch and now the iPad, they're not exactly on good terms.  Adobe would love nothing
more than deliver a flash for those apple devices.

That's another thing that's going to disappoint people.  All the talk of how amazing it is for
tv/movies, people are going to buy them, go to hulu, then curse.

Like all apple products, you have to wait for v2.0 (particularly for pricing).  It might be a successful
product.  But it's off to a bad start.

[Saul Goodman]

And Adobe really doesn't give a shit to fix it.

While Adobe writes shitty software, that's not true.  Since apple is strong arming them off the
iPhone/Touch and now the iPad, they're not exactly on good terms.  Adobe would love nothing
more than deliver a flash for those apple devices.

That's another thing that's going to disappoint people.  All the talk of how amazing it is for
tv/movies, people are going to buy them, go to hulu, then curse.

Like all apple products, you have to wait for v2.0 (particularly for pricing).  It might be a successful
product.  But it's off to a bad start.

Chicken or the egg.  Apple kept them off the iPhone in the first place precisely because Flash on Mac OS X is terrible.  It's been terrible for a long time.  Apple isn't amused.  That hasn't changed, so it stays off.

As for Hulu, they're working on a solution, I'm sure.

[thehawk]

A couple of clarification points to the above.

Apple will be offering a USB connector and a SD connector for the iPad (they attach to the 30 pin connector).

There is no contract committment at all associated with a 3G iPad.  AT+Ts service plans of the iPad is month by month, and purchasable (and I assume but have not seen) cancelable on the iPad itself.  I could imagine owning this as a "second computer" for the house, and then buy the 3G service while Im traveling.

In my mind, if Citrix provides App to run their VPN software (much like their Go toMyPC software) on this thing, it would allow me to travel without a laptop, and that would be a killer app indeed.

[BH]

A couple of clarification points to the above.

Apple will be offering a USB connector and a SD connector for the iPad (they attach to the 30 pin connector).

There is no contract committment at all associated with a 3G iPad.  AT+Ts service plans of the iPad is month by month, and purchasable (and I assume but have not seen) cancelable on the iPad itself.  I could imagine owning this as a "second computer" for the house, and then buy the 3G service while Im traveling.

In my mind, if Citrix provides App to run their VPN software (much like their Go toMyPC software) on this thing, it would allow me to travel without a laptop, and that would be a killer app indeed.

At work I'm moving towards a virtual desktop, so I can start using any computer with an internet connection. For traveling, this computer would be pretty sweet.

[PenFoe]

A couple of clarification points to the above.

Apple will be offering a USB connector and a SD connector for the iPad (they attach to the 30 pin connector).

There is no contract committment at all associated with a 3G iPad.  AT+Ts service plans of the iPad is month by month, and purchasable (and I assume but have not seen) cancelable on the iPad itself.  I could imagine owning this as a "second computer" for the house, and then buy the 3G service while Im traveling.

In my mind, if Citrix provides App to run their VPN software (much like their Go toMyPC software) on this thing, it would allow me to travel without a laptop, and that would be a killer app indeed.

At work I'm moving towards a virtual desktop, so I can start using any computer with an internet connection. For traveling, this computer would be pretty sweet.

We get it, you're homeless.

[BH]

A couple of clarification points to the above.

Apple will be offering a USB connector and a SD connector for the iPad (they attach to the 30 pin connector).

There is no contract committment at all associated with a 3G iPad.  AT+Ts service plans of the iPad is month by month, and purchasable (and I assume but have not seen) cancelable on the iPad itself.  I could imagine owning this as a "second computer" for the house, and then buy the 3G service while Im traveling.

In my mind, if Citrix provides App to run their VPN software (much like their Go toMyPC software) on this thing, it would allow me to travel without a laptop, and that would be a killer app indeed.

At work I'm moving towards a virtual desktop, so I can start using any computer with an internet connection. For traveling, this computer would be pretty sweet.

We get it, you're homeless.

If the Kindle were made in Detroit, I'd totally just use that. For everything.

[Richard Chuggar]

A couple of clarification points to the above.

Apple will be offering a USB connector and a SD connector for the iPad (they attach to the 30 pin connector).

There is no contract committment at all associated with a 3G iPad.  AT+Ts service plans of the iPad is month by month, and purchasable (and I assume but have not seen) cancelable on the iPad itself.  I could imagine owning this as a "second computer" for the house, and then buy the 3G service while Im traveling.

In my mind, if Citrix provides App to run their VPN software (much like their Go toMyPC software) on this thing, it would allow me to travel without a laptop, and that would be a killer app indeed.

At work I'm moving towards a virtual desktop, so I can start using any computer with an internet connection. For traveling, this computer would be pretty sweet.

We get it, you're homeless.

If the Kindle were made in Detroit, I'd totally just use that. For everything.

What if it were made in Brolumbus?  Then what?

[Pre]

In my mind, if Citrix provides App to run their VPN software (much like their Go toMyPC software) on this thing, it would allow me to travel without a laptop, and that would be a killer app indeed.

At work I'm moving towards a virtual desktop, so I can start using any computer with an internet connection. For traveling, this computer would be pretty sweet.

I'm not sure how traveling with and iPad is different than traveling with a netbook.  The size isn't significantly smaller.
Do you have a job where you could get serious work done without a keyboard?  It's an honest question.  I sure as
hell couldn't (but that doesn't mean you can't).  If you're carrying that and a keyboard it's definitely no smaller than
a netbook.  What does the apple tablet have that makes it more useful than one of the several windows 7 or linux
tablet or convertible netbooks with a fully functional os?  There's some pretty similar non-apple stuff coming out in the
next few months.

Some kind of VPN/remote desktop app would be nice, but I can't see it as a system selling point.

The iPad will never run a usable virtual machine if that's what you mean BH.